For military personnel engaged in combat, being able to fire your weapon can mean the difference between life and death. But when personnel are in or around water, the weapon can be dead weight that creates a hazard. For example, where a military team is compromised exiting or entering the water while engaged in a fire fight, the weapon can be heavy and requires the personnel to swim and simultaneously hold the weight of the weapon and shoot. Personnel not engaged in direct combat, still need to both maintain buoyancy and swim/float and maintain security in order to complete the mission. For example, for those that are in some type of water craft, a weapon that is dropped overboard would sink and compromise the mission.
To address these concerns, life jackets have been taped to the weapon in a makeshift fashion to provide buoyancy. Alternatively, the weapons have been tethered to the watercraft to prevent them from being inadvertently dropped overboard.
However, these previous efforts have several shortcomings in that they either require an adhesive (such as tape) to secure the float to the weapon (but adhesive is often comprised or ineffective in a moist environment), or they require complicated fasteners that can be difficult to fasten in the heat of a military campaign. Furthermore, these previous efforts are large and bulky, making them difficult to store in the personnel's backpacks.
Therefore, a need exists for device that quickly connects to a rifle to provide buoyancy, which also breaks down into a size and shape that is more easily stored.